Participatory budgeting for children to be launched in Tuusula in autumn 2025

“We want to give children the power to decide how our shared tax euros are spent in Tuusula. Tuusula is part of UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Municipality programme, and participatory budgeting strengthens the involvement of children in Tuusula and the realisation of children’s rights, says Development Manager Heidi Hagman. 

Participatory budgeting for children will follow the same steps as in previous participatory budgeting processes carried out between 2018 and 2024. There is no age limit for brainstorming and co-development in participatory budgeting for children, but only those under the age of 18 are eligible to vote.  

“Our current participatory budgeting process and its stages are not particularly child-friendly, which is why we have set up a multidisciplinary working group of municipal experts to develop the children’s participatory budgeting process. The group includes representatives from the fields of learning, early childhood education and youth work, says Community Manager Katja Repo.

“We also need children and young people to participate in developing more child-friendly practices and stages of the participatory budgeting process in a digital council and advisory group. The advisory group will be assembled during January, and anyone interested can register directly with me,” Repo says. 

In autumn 2024, the principles of children’s participation were developed in a pilot class at Tuomala School and in a workshop entitled ‘Power to Children’ held at schools and daycare centres in Tuusulanjärvi. The next workshops, which are open to all children and young people, will be held in the spring. Workshops will be organised in all municipal centres. The development work also involves extensive development of communication aimed at children, an electronic participation platform and data protection.
   As before, the
budget for participatory budgeting is estimated at EUR 200,000, and the implementation period is two years.

“Participatory budgeting is an easy way to influence and participate. It is also a very concrete form of democracy education, says Repo. Children and young people have been active participants in participatory budgeting before, but now the number of participants will multiply as daycare centres and schools become more involved, Repo says happily.  

Further information:

Community Manager Katja Repo, +358 40 314 3048, katja.repo@tuusula.fi
Development Manager Heidi Hagman, +358 40 314 3052, heidi.hagman@tuusula.fi

Child-friendly municipality model in Tuusula

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